Sometimes appreciative, sometimes scathingly critical, journalists, scholars, and other observers have often taken note of Mary Baker Eddy’s strong leadership and keen intelligence. One of the key prosecutors in a legal suit launched against Mrs. Eddy when she was eighty-six was overheard to remark begrudgingly, “Mrs. Eddy was smarter than a steel trap” (Minnie A. Scott reminiscences, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection, The Mary Baker Eddy Library).
Christian Scientists can surely understand what the lawyer was talking about! But they wouldn’t be apt to identify with his standpoint. The reason isn’t just that the lawyer was on the opposing side, but that Christian Scientists aren’t likely to think of Mrs. Eddy’s intelligence in personal terms.
The healings we’ve experienced have had little to do with a human mind. They’ve had everything to do with an increasing comprehension that all is divine Mind, not matter. We’ve come to know this Spirit or Mind, not as a doctrine or an abstract ideal, but as a wondrously loving presence. In fact, what is felt as God’s loving care when someone is healed through Christian Science is really all about the incredible actuality of God, who is Love itself, as the New Testament teaches.
